Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Blustery winds and lightning made the last few storms that passed through our area a little scary for my children. Sometimes, to help ease fears, we pull out books and read them snuggled close together during a storm. But, what would happen if those same storms made their way into a child's dreams? Janet Halfmann channels a child's creativity and spins an imaginative and informative tale about animal coats lost in a storm in her latest picture book, Fur and Feathers.

"I can make new coats for all of you, just like your old ones," she exclaims. "Form a line and tell me what you need."

A featherless duck? A bear without fur? In Fur and Feathers, a little girl named Sophia falls asleep during a storm while her mother reads a counting book about animals. The wind and animals enter her dreams, the animals get caught in a swirling storm and the wind blows their skin coverings right off. The duck loses all its feathers, the polar bear loses its fluffy white fur and the snake's scales fly away. Sophia must come to their rescue. At first she tries to dress them in her own clothing, but the animals agree that it isn't a practical solution (a diving suit looks pretty silly on a portly pig and the porcupine closely resembles Paddington from the classic books). Luckily for the animals, Sophia comes up with a better idea. She grabs her grandmother's sewing basket and, one by one, she proceeds to craft a new coat for each animal, adding her own special touches as she finishes each coat. The author leaves the end of the book to the reader's own imagination - was it truly a dream?

Sophia, the main character, uses all her creative energies coming up with appropriate coats for the animals. She sticks pins and needles on the porcupine, uses a little green slime for the frog, and covers a fish in sequins. Illustrator Laurie Allen Klein certainly must have enjoyed creating all the animal artwork in this fun book. One page spread shows 26 animals without coverings standing in line, starkly contrasting a colorful ladybug with brilliant and starry new wing covers. (There's a nice little puzzle on that page, by the way. Bet you can't figure out the names of all the animals pictured from from A to Z...we surely can't!) We laughed at the silly clothing on the animals, enjoyed the illustrator's hints about what animal would get a new coat next, and loved the proud and adorable expressions on the animals' faces as they regain their new, improved coverings.

Fur and Feathers releases today (August 10, 2010) and certainly sparks the imagination. My kids thought about all the household items they could use on different animals if they needed a new coat and we had fun discussing the differences between the animal coverings. In fact, like other Sylvan Dell books, this fictional story contains an impressive educational component. The "For Creative Minds” section in the back of the book covers basic scientific classification. Young children (preschoolers through early elementary) can learn how to categorize animals in classes by observing their different skin coverings (Mammals, Fish, Reptiles, Birds, Insects, Gastropods, Amphibians). Teachers, parents, and homeschoolers can find free online educational resources to accompany this book on the publisher's website.

Readers might also enjoy: Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett

Fur and Feathers inspired us to create our own animal classification story stretcher and craft (for other educational activities view the extensive Teaching Activities guidebook):

Grouping Stuffed Animals - After reading the book, we gathered up all our stuffed animals and grouped them into their appropriate classes. The mammal group (71 total stuffed animals) by far surpassed all the other groups. Birds (7 total) came in a distant second. Even though we used the chart in the back of the book, one animal, the octopus, had us stumped as to what group it belonged. And, we ended up forming an entirely new category - Monsters!

Animal Covering Craft - My daughter decided to try her hand at providing a bunny with a coat of fur. She searched our home and decided that the dryer lint would work well for covering a rabbit. She drew a picture of a rabbit and glued the lint to cover her picture. Together we researched how to classify a rabbit and included this information on her craft page. (She modeled her drawing after her favorite stuffed animal, a stuffed rabbit that goes by the name of Summerfield.) This project would be so much fun to do with a classroom. The students could combine their projects to make a touch and feel animal classification book.

Sylvan Dell has kindly offered a giveaway. Enter to win a choice of a hardcover copy of Fur and Feathers personalized by Janet & Laurie (ship US only) or 3-month e-book license for all of Sylvan Dell Publishing’s 55 books (international)

To enter, leave any comment relevant to this post. (Or answer the following question: Name your favorite animal and let me know what materials you would use for its covering, if it asked you to make a new one.)

• For contact purposes, if you are a non-blogger or your email is not accessible in your blog profile, please leave a valid email address within the comment section.• Contest is open to US Only for hardback book, International for 3-month e-book license• Contest ends on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 11:59 PM CST.• Winner will be chosen at random and sent an email notification.

Three ways to gain extra entries (Maximum total entries is 4; please leave a separate comment for each entry):1st extra entry: Blog about this contest then post your link in the comment section.2nd extra entry: Follow me on twitter (iambrimful) and tweet about the contest.3rd extra entry: Follow Me! or subscribe by email or RSS reader

gahome2mom, thanks so much for stopping by. I'm glad you like the Teaching Guide. Sylvan Dell does an amazing job of creating those for each of its books. The publishers homeschooled their children, too, so they know a lot about what educators and families need. Have fun with Fur and Feathers!

Sounds like such a great book...thanks for reviewing and coming up with great activities to go along with it. My favorite animal is a rabbit and I think cotton balls (pulled apart) would make a perfect new cover. Thanks for offering the giveaway.

AStarrA and Bridget R. Wilson, thanks so much for stopping by. I love both ideas—a panda with fleece and a rabbit with pulled-apart cotton balls. I can foresee lots of fun activities with all kinds of materials creating new animal coats in the future—among kids and adults alike!

What an adorable, educational, and thought provoking story. I'm sure that my 2 grandchildren would love this book AND they would be much more creative than I at coming up with new animal coverings!

Here is my attempt:-) Cats are my favorite animals and to 're-dress' one I would use the slivers of paper that have been shredded by my cross cut shredder. Now the only real positive about my idea is that it would be a 'green' animal coat, as was the dryer lint, because we are recycling :-) (Just joking about the green aspect because everyone is trying to be so conscious of it today)

Thank you for the chance at winning a copy of this fantastic children's book!

For animals not very wooly we would use some old t shirts. Like an elephant could be gray knit or a horse could be a brown or black. For furry animals try using an old discarded wooly sweater!pbclark(at)netins(dot)net

Wow! I returned from a week's vacation with family to find lots more visitors. Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by and for your wonderful comments. Your ideas for new animal coats are so fun: toothpicks for a porcupine, shredded paper for a cat, knit t-shirts and wooly sweaters—the ideas just keep coming. I'm so happy that so many of you are finding the Teaching Activities on Sylvan Dell Publishing's website so helpful. Happy Reading to All!

This book shows in an ingenious way how to learn about animals, but also going to sleep and dreaming can be a world all it’s own. Especially for children that won’t go to sleep because they are afraid they will have bad dreams.ncjeepster@aol.com

Wow, lots more comments. Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by and for your wonderful comments. I couldn't help chuckling about the young boy who will be using his red hair for lion fur! All of you readers are so creative!

About Me

Brimful Curiosities is a mom blog/book blog featuring reviews and posts on children's books, music, educational products, toys and more. It's home to the weekly "Full to the Brim" Kid's Book Giveaway List. Occasionally it includes non-children related product and book reviews and personal postings.